Why digital is superior to analog

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XLR said:
After scanning parts of this endless wankthread I've decided that analog is superior to digital. For the simple reason that it's one letter shorter.
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That makes digital better in the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. France surrendered to digital in 1928. The Germans aren't sure which is better because they haven't finished adding letters to their words for analog and digital :confused:
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
And I'm not sure you can blame digital (the technology) for that; it's not the technology's fault that people misuse it.
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Yes…but digital came at a point in time when the whole home-recording thing broke wide open (and/or was the cause of it)…but it didn’t come with any how-to instructions, and because of software ease, allowed people to dive deep into shit they had no clue about.
Which is why I posted awhile back in this thread that growing up during the “early days” of home recording…having to work with tape and minimal gear...forced a certain amount of learning and following of basic fundamentals of audio.
So yeah…it’s misuse that causes the problems not the technology…but then, it’s the over abundance and quick freedom that the digital technology provides that creates the recipe for immediate misuse.
So…6 of one, half dozen of the other…you pick em. :)

SouthSIDE Glen said:
Originally Posted by Tim Gillett
True...but THAT may be the essence of why so many folks seem to prefer the sound of tape/analog VS. digital (without just looking/comparing their specs).
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How much of that, though, is largely because that's what folks have become accustomed to, and not because it actually has an inherent pleasantness? Imagine a hypothetical planet where they, for whatever historical reason, tripped across digital recording before they did analog. They were used to digital for many years. Yeah it had gotten better as technology increased, but then someone came along with the idea of analog recording. Now, if analog recording truly intrinsically sounded better, there'd be no nostalgia for the "old school" digital sound, and digital would be dropped like lead balloon.

Do you think that would happen that easily, or would people think that analog sounded too distorted and artifacty compared to the "clean" digital they and their parents grew up on?

I suspect that it wouldn't be much different than it is here and now, and that on Planet Digital First there'd be as many debates in as many forums like this one over the whole A vs. D subject. The only real difference would be a role reversal between the two sides.
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First off…I posted the comments in the above quote…not Tim…but this BBS has some weird mechanism for including quotes within quotes from previous posts…so I can see how it got messed up. :D

Anyway…yeah, you can hypothesize “what if”…but it is what it is and it didn’t happen any other way.
I actually DO believe that the human ear and eye will always find some things more pleasant than others…so just reversing the order in which we discover things will not necessarily change that, IMO.

IOW… IMHO…a turd would never have ended up looking more pleasant than a flower, even if we humans stared at turds for a 1000 years before flowers came along, and likewise, sawtooth waves would never sound better than sine waves, even if we listened to them for a 1000 years first! ;)
So yeah, I do think tape has a certain pleasing quality that would stand out even if digital had come along first. There are many digital-only users who suddenly discover tape, and go “WOW!...sounds great!”.
But then…there’s these MP3 iPod folks who I think must be partially deaf, or they just never heard anything on a decent system in a decent format….though I think what really drives their choices is NOT sound quality…it is convenience.
And that’s the sad part….convenience is reducing quality to a certain level of insignificance.
Heck…I think that’s also why so many home-rec folks don’t bother with tape or analog gear…its too INCONVENIENT!
It’s much easier/cheaper to set up a “studio”…in the box….who the heck wants to deal with racks of gear, wires, tape, maintenance, calibration…UGH!!! :D
Well…there are still some of use that do….
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
On the tape side of the equation, yes. But - and correct me if I'm wrong - there's also the input signal level side of it which also equates the 0VU reading to +4dBu of input signal ("line level"). In other words, in effect, a properly calibrated tape deck calibrates the 0VU reference level on both sides of the heads to each other.

With this in mind, assuming 0dBVU to represent +4dBu - using "line level" as the reference average, not only would a +6 on the tape also translate (assuming a unity gain setting on the deck output, of course) to +6dBVU/+10dBu signal chain level, but then would also directly translate via the calibrated conversion level calibrated in the converter to the corresponding reading in dBFS on the digital side.

G.
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The SouthSIDE Glen over at A & A is saying something completely contradictory to that!
 
miroslav said:
So yeah…it’s misuse that causes the problems not the technology…but then, it’s the over abundance and quick freedom that the digital technology provides that creates the recipe for immediate misuse.
So…6 of one, half dozen of the other…you pick em. :)
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Meh, I am all for misuse :p It drives innovation. Even in the analog days, had it not been for misuse we wouldn't have things like flanger for example.

Sometimes I momentarily toggle the power on/off on my sampler just so that the loaded samples will get corrupted, and then revel in all their corrupt glory. They sound so horrific, they put Cheney to shame! :D
 
miroslav said:
First off…I posted the comments in the above quote…not Tim…but this BBS has some weird mechanism for including quotes within quotes from previous posts…so I can see how it got messed up. :D
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Oops, I didn't catch that. Apologies to you and Tim G. I don't know if that was me or the BBS, but either way I didn't mean it.

G.
 
And speaking of A and A, I'm offended at the use of my username in a number of threads there. Yeah, they even had some lameass excuses about cables and jacks and stuff. I'm giving A and A notice right here that any further unauthorized use of my name will result in legal action!

XLR
 
XLR said:
And speaking of A and A, I'm offended at the use of my username in a number of threads there. Yeah, they even had some lameass excuses about cables and jacks and stuff. I'm giving A and A notice right here that any further unauthorized use of my name will result in legal action!

XLR
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check with SSG on a class action.
 
XLR said:
And speaking of A and A, I'm offended at the use of my username in a number of threads there. Yeah, they even had some lameass excuses about cables and jacks and stuff. I'm giving A and A notice right here that any further unauthorized use of my name will result in legal action!

XLR
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Frivolous.

Your user name wouldn't come up unless there was an audio discussion. Those don't happen at A&A. FAIL!
 
XLR said:
And speaking of A and A, I'm offended at the use of my username in a number of threads there. Yeah, they even had some lameass excuses about cables and jacks and stuff. I'm giving A and A notice right here that any further unauthorized use of my name will result in legal action!

XLR
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Something strange is going on here, I don't have time to figure out what it is tonight, but this is turning into a Cave thread so it's time to move on.
 
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